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E8500 wolfdale overclock with ddr2 ram and a 780i mobo

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This is my first time with overclocking and was wondering if anyone could help me out. I really want to overclock to 3.6 or 3.8 ghz.... my specs are below, i have 1 graphics card right now (I know i'm not uitilizing the sli completely as of right now, but one graphics card is running well enough for me for today's games, i might add another sometime this year) I just ordered another 4 gb of the same type of sli ready memory (2 x 2gb). My 150gb WD raptor just died on me after a year of use, so I am in the process of doing an RMA for that, and I have ordered a new hard drive which will be arriving next week (WD black caviar 500gb 32mb cache). I want to overclock as soon as I get windows XP installed on this new Hard Drive next week, so any help would be greatly appreciated! I would like to use the programs CPU-Z and speedfan, I feel like I have read more about those and know more about these programs than others.

System Specs:

E8500 Wolfdale 3.16 ghz
EVGA nForce 780i Sli motherboard
nvidia geforce 8800 GT OC 512mb GDDR3 (bfg tech) (factory overclocked)
OCZ 4 gb (2 x 2gb) 240 pin sli ready edition 800mhz ddr2 pc2-6400 (will be 8 gb total when overclocking)
WD black caviar 500gb 32mb cache
Thermaltake Liquid Cooling

If anyone knows if I can overclock my E8500 to 3.6 ghz or 3.8 ghz just through the bios without messing with the voltage let me know, but if I do have to change the voltages on it, I would need a thorough explanation on how to not mess this up ;)  thanks everyone for feedback!

I am just conscious about not changing my voltages because I heard that if you raise the voltage, the life of the chip decreases somewhat.

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Motherboard Master
Overclocking Master
Graphics card Authority

Here's some of my "standard" OC links. Use what you need:

This should be your first stop.
HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - Guide v1.6.1
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overc...

This should be your second stop. You need to know something about thermal management or you can fry your CPU. It's pretty difficult to fry a modern CPU, but it is possible.
Core 2 Quad and Duo Temperature Guide
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/221745-29-sticky-core...

Third stop will be a guide for your particular motherboard. Google is your friend. If you can't find anything useful about the 780i, try googling "680i overclock". The BIOS's are similar.

For anything higher than about 3.6 GHz, you may need better cooling. Here are two under $50 heatsinks that are pretty popular:
Sunbeam
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Xigmatec Dark Knight
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

They both require a somewhat different approach to applying thermal compound.
Suggestions for applying thermal compound:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_conten...

And they are pretty large, so they might not fit inside your case.

And here's a good budget cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

A lot of us do not believe in overclocking the RAM in a Core2 system, primarily because you do not gain much and it can limit your CPU OC (where the speed comes from).

The eVGA BIOS's are a little different from everybody else's. Somewhere in the memory OC section, there's a place for the memory clock. The first choice you should try is LINKED. Either that or a manual setting where the mem freq is twice the FSB freq.

Here is one of the threads where we discuss memory overclocking (and why not to do it :) ):
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251715-29-ratio-myth

Keep in mind that these are guides, not cookbooks. YMMV. Your Mileage May Vary. Because of all the variables, you may not do as well as someone else with a similar system. Or you might do better.
----------
Overclocking since 1978 - Z80 (TRS-80) from 1.77 MHz to 2.01 MHz

I read through that whole tutorial, but I'm still a little confused on the 1:1 ratio with FSB : DRAM ... if I have 800 mhz pc2 6400 ddr2 ram would the max FSB I could have while still being linked be 400 mhz without unstabilizing my ram?

400 mhz for the FSB, and 9.5 for my multiplyer, which would give me 3.8 ghz that way... but if i wanted to go higher i would need to change it to unlinked and give only 100 mhz to the graphics card correct?

And if it doesn't POST, I should raise the vcore voltage by the smallest amount until it does POST? Let me know if I'm understanding that correctly... thanks for the help by the way :) 
Motherboard Master
Overclocking Master
Graphics card Authority

Micccx said:
if I have 800 mhz pc2 6400 ddr2 ram would the max FSB I could have while still being linked be 400 mhz without unstabilizing my ram?

Yes.

Micccx said:

400 mhz for the FSB, and 9.5 for my multiplyer, which would give me 3.8 ghz that way... but if i wanted to go higher i would need to change it to unlinked and give only 100 mhz to the graphics card correct?

400 X 9.5 = 3.8 GHz. Yes. To go higher, not exactly. What I would try first is to relax the memory timing from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-15, then raise the RAM voltage a .1 of a volt, and leave the memory linked. Don't mess with the PCI clocks.

Micccx said:

And if it doesn't POST, I should raise the vcore voltage by the smallest amount until it does POST? Let me know if I'm understanding that correctly... thanks for the help by the way :) 

Yes. Work back and forth between the FSB and core voltage until you reach Intel's recommended max volt of 1.3625 volts or the CPU core temps hit 70 C.

I managed to overclock to 3.8 Ghz, and maintain 38C idle and 48C load temps with my water cooling system, using a 1.30 vcore. I will be trying to lower the vcore to see if it posts at a lower voltage, but again thank you for the help :) 
Motherboard Master
Overclocking Master
Graphics card Authority

If you are hitting 3.8 GHz at 1.30 volts with only 48 C load temps you should be able to push higher. The only problem might be your RAM. You can run the RAM voltage up to 2.2 volts. I wouldn't go higher.

It looks like you won the CPU lottery.

Whoops I meant to say it fluctuates between 1.320 and 1.328 vcore (in cpu-z) @ 3.8 Ghz . ^^ (though I believe I have it set to 1.3625 in BIOS) I can lower it if it's too high... I just set it to 1.3625 vcore in bios before I did any overclocking, so I know I can go further, or that I can lower the vcore that would be no problem, it was 12 hours stable in P95, 0 errors.

So, I actually decided to take out the water cooling, it was too much of a hassle and I got an aftermarket cpu cooler, the Zalman CNPS9700 LED. I'll have it installed tomorrow in my computer, hopefully I get good temps still. I'm also adding another 8800gt oc for a 2x sli setup (using Zalman VF1000 and Zalman VF900 VGA Coolers on those cards). And to top it off I'm doing some serious cable management in my system for better airflow. My Ram is currently set to 5-4-4-15, 1T and running at 800 Mhz with 2.1v.

x9.5 multi
400 Mhz FSB
1:1

I'm thinking of increasing my FSB and keeping the RAM linked (sync mode 1:1), what would you recommend me pushing it to jsc? I've read reviews and other threads of people pushing the RAM to 1000 Mhz and some even to 1066 Mhz tops. Going to 900 mhz would give me 4.275 Ghz, but going to 1000 Mhz would give me 4.750 Ghz. :D 

Just wondering what your thoughts are on this, and what do you think my E8500 can handle? Thanks jsc

I just ran P95 again for 17 hours, 0 errors. With the new CPU cooler installed, max temp for CPU-Z Hardware monitor shows 58C. Max Core 0 and Core 1 temps shows 53C @ 3.8 Ghz.

Micccx said:
I just ran P95 again for 17 hours, 0 errors. With the new CPU cooler installed, max temp for CPU-Z Hardware monitor shows 58C. Max Core 0 and Core 1 temps shows 53C @ 3.8 Ghz.


You should be able to go further.

have you tried lowering the CPU Voltage? If not, you really should try - it directly effects your temps

I have my E8500 running @ 4 GHz using only 1.248 volt (Vdroop eliminated), but I am using water (thermaltake bigwater).

Minooch
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